Bill Viola Hall of Whispers

Hall of Whispers is a video installation in which one sees, on two sides of a dark space, projections of the pallid faces of ten people who have been gagged. Bill Viola first presented this work in 1995 at the Venice Biennial. Along with four other video works, including The Greeting, it comprised part of Viola’s exhibition Buried Secrets in the American pavilion. For many years now The Greeting has been part of De Pont’s permanent collection and display. After nearly ten years it is now being temporarily reunited with Hall of Whispers.

For the collection catalogue of De Pont, Sjoukje van der Meulen describes her experience of the presentation in Venice: “One entered via Hall of Whispers, a dark space with video projections on either side – portraits of anonymous political activists, gagged.Their protests and moans could be heard distinctly through the cloth. The visitor, having anticipated a brief respite from the activity outside, was confronted with a harsh political reality. Viola had conjured forth images of executions and other atrocities and – unlike the makers of most day-to-day television images - managed to involve the viewer personally and physically in the wrongdoing.”

Like no other video artist, Viola frequently succeeds in commanding this involvement by way of dramatic and compelling video installations. In his large retrospective exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 1998, impressive examples of this could be seen. For many, the theme of the life cycle and the expression of life and death also make his work emotional and moving.

Aside from these imposing installations, Bill Viola has also produced a number of more subdued and introvert works. In these he often refers to the traditions of painting and to both Western and non-Western mysticism and iconography. The Greeting and Catherine’s Room constitute two fine examples of this in De Pont’s collection. The Greeting is a video version of the biblical theme of the Visitation as portrayed by the Renaissance painter Pontormo, and Catherine’s Room brings to mind, in terms of form and content, Italian altarpieces as well as Dutch genre painting.

Hall of Whispers has special significance within Viola’s body of work; the gallery of gagged individuals evokes a union of imposing presence and stirring silence. Those depicted remain anonymous, cannot be understood and keep their eyes shut. These are black-and-white portraits of unknown individuals whose gaze and narrative are turned inward. Any form of communication seems impossible. Are they activists, and if so, for what cause? Or have they simply become random victims of a force that has made them unable to speak? Though we cannot tell, their wordless story is reminds us of present-day news in the media. Almost every day we are confronted, in news broadcasts, with bound, gagged or blindfolded victims of all sorts of violent situations – people who have been arrested, kidnapped or imprisoned in different types of conflicts and made unable to speak. Because of this, Hall of Whispers seems to become a statement, perhaps to an even greater degree now than it was meant to be nearly ten years ago. Not a political indictment but a statement about all situations in which people are deprived of a voice, and thereby of their freedom and individuality. What they are left with is a world that is completely introvert: a dark inner world of unfathomable secrets and stories.

With thanks to Haunch of Venison, London. Pressetext

Bill Viola "Hall of Whispers"